Area Development Plan for Green Village now in effect

Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

09 February 2018

On 26 January, Geneva authorities confirmed that the Area Development Plan (ADP) for the project Green Village is now in effect. The Green Village real estate project, designed by LRS Architectes SA, sets six new buildings in a park, around a restored and renovated Ecumenical Centre building.

The plans include a residential building and hotel, as well as office buildings; integral to its design are pathways, cycle paths, gardens and natural landscaping, respecting biodiversity. This significant milestone marks the completion of work begun already in November 2014 with the ADP’s first filing. Now, in its final version, the ADP incorporates recommendations from the consultative processes with the Commune of Grand-Saconnex, and local residents, as well as the specialist state departments.

Throughout the real estate development process, WCC is being accompanied professionally by Implenia, Switzerland’s leading construction and construction service company.

Further to architectural studies conducted by the Geneva heritage department, the Canton has announced at the same time its decision to classify the main building. The Geneva State Council has affirmed that the ecumenical chapel “is of exceptional quality, and merits preservation”, its design presenting historic significance in the research of the architects, Honegger Brothers and Svend Erik Møller, towards definition of an “ideal form of sacred ecumenical space”.

The Walter Brugger garden is considered as a particularly remarkable feature, and is also subject to the classification order.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, said: “Green Village will bring a new urban style to the district; and it will also be unique as a project, since it will include not only new buildings, constructed to a high ecological standard, but also restoration and renewal of our chapel and main building at the centre of the overall design.”

He added: “The project aims to secure the future of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for the World Council of Churches and its ecumenical partners.”

The next steps in the development of the WCC property will be the granting of definitive building permits. Construction is planned to begin on the first two buildings in 2019, with delivery of the buildings in 2022.